Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali were both showboaters. Which of them was the better fighter?

Well, I would imagine that's better than being a wife murderer as one of the
more popular fighter on this site did.

 

Leonard had a more complete skill set. Better inside fighter, punched to the body. Hit harder for his division. Also Ray was facing more skilled opponents.

 

Sugar Ray Robinson witnessed it. He mentioned one incident.

 

This

 

No, Ali is greater because he did more. He fought more. He ducked nobody until really late but the guy fought everyone. Ali defended his title many more times.

 

Greb, Charles, Louis, Robinson, Pep, Moore, Griffith..Kid Gavilan, Armstrong. That's off the top. We can't overlook the work these guys diid because Leonard was more recent and famous. Ray was a superstar but that is a different thing.

You could reasonably sneak Ali up as high as 5-7. P4P. Leonard maybe #20-25.

Ray also lost to Duran in his prime who had moved up in weight. He did beat Hearns, a great win. Then there is a big gap. Basically nothing from 82-87. We saw him lose to Hearns in a rematch.. The Hagler fight he won it on paper. That night is a whole nother argument. I'm far from alone in that opinion. By age 34, Terry Norris had to carry him the distance. He was no longer competitive. I dont see GOAT level dominance.

So were the greatest in history? Leonard a great fighter? Yes. One of the most talented? Yes.Could he had reached the level you are claiming for him? Sure but he didn't do it..He is in the top 5 Welterweight anywhere from 2-5.

 

Ali himself said he hit Sonji Roi, his first wife. Sorry. Cant recall source.

 

I don't rank fighters for which there exists little or no high quality prime footage of them or their opponents.

I can't help but think of this meme

https://imgur.com/ovE8LpI

When it comes to the almost mythical status these old fighters have attained. I never saw them fight, and I'm not gonna rank them based on second hand information from the notoriously fallible boxing "experts".

 

I was joking, I only said he should’ve brought that up because he called them both show boaters for literally no reason

 

Are you sure about him not ducking nobody ? If so, then why didn't he give Foreman an immediate rematch ?
Anyway, I don't really remember SRL ducking anyone either.
Plus, I already said I see Ali as greater, but not as a better boxer p4p.

 

This is a good post.
Ali got away with a lot because he fought at heavyweight. If you put him at 147, Ali, even the "prime", pre 1967 version, would have had a hard time of it.
If Ali and Leonard were both welterweights, Leonard would beat him.

 

Ali was hit hard and often by Doug Jones, Karl Mildenberger and Zora Folley. Ali was hit a ton against all time great Joe Frazier without giving up huge height and reach like Leonard did w Hearns .. Ali was all natural speed and reflexes, very little traditional boxing skill ..

 

I'd say that's a big oversimplification.

Neither would I agree that Mildenberger and Folley hit him often and hard. I think this post is a classic example of spinning everything as far as you can. Yes, Mildenberger and Folley presented him with some problems, but they weren't punishing fights for him. And, yes, there were holes in his game, but if you think that he had very little tradional boxing skille then you frankly don't know what you're looking at.